Path 2

NYC Is the Most Bedbug-Ridden Place in the USA!

August 24, 2010

As Rosie mentioned last week, maybe it’s time to accept the bedbugs as our overlords. Personal anecdote: This very blogger walked down 2nd Street on Sunday and saw no less than 6 mattresses waiting in the rain for garbage collectors. Since it’s neither the last nor the very first of the month, she wondered: Why shedding the old beds now? Ah, yes. Bedbugs. (She walked faster.) Now we hear that a Terminix report has classified us #1 of the nation’s most bedbug-infested cities. Yay.

Well, we aren’t the most stressed city (yet), nor was our summer the hottest on record (yet), but we have a win with 11,000 complaints about bedbugs last year! (The ranking is based on call volume, which means that New Yorkers may also just be the most complaining of the bunch.)

Also making the list were Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, L.A., and Ohio cities Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton.

Interestingly, bedbugs were nearly done away with completely before World War II, which means that our long-discussed potential World War III enemy may not be any of the usual suspects but an army of blood-sucking nighttime creatures (and not vampires).

Prepare for a call to arms. And call 311 if you think you have an infestation.